The present invention relates generally to the provision of a drinking straw with an individual beverage carton and in particular to the provision of a drinking straw on the inside of an individual beverage carton and a method of manufacture thereof.
Packaged individual beverage cartons of plastic coated paper board sheet material folded into a generally parallelepipedic shape have been made available to consumers for many years and are often referred to as xe2x80x9cjuice boxesxe2x80x9d.
Various arrangements have been proposed to provide a straw with an individual beverage carton. In general, a cylindrical plastic drinking straw is packaged in a separate sealed plastic envelope and attached usually with an adhesive to the outside of the beverage carton. The straw may be straight or it may have an accordion type bend therein. In use, the consumer is required to remove the drinking straw from its envelope and insert it through the packaging of the container at a predetermined place usually on the top of the container, the straw then being ready to allow consumption of the beverage from the container. As the drinking straw once inserted into the beverage carton makes consumption of the beverage possible, conversely consumption of the beverage from the container without the use of the drinking straw is problematic and objectionable.
One disadvantage of the assembly as described above is that the straw has to be inserted into the beverage carton prior to use. In order to insert the drinking straw into the beverage carton the consumer has to pierce a portion of the carton. Typically there is a preferred point of entry or insertion point that can be identified by a round hole in the carton (but not in the foil liner) on its top. However, the consumer has to puncture the foil liner so that the straw has access to the liquid therein. The foil liner can withstand relatively high pressures such that the carton will not readily leak at the insertion point. As the act of inserting the drinking straw through the packaging material at the predetermined place requires considerable force, the beverage carton also needs to be simultaneously held soundly. This holding soundly often means squeezing the beverage carton and therefore there exists the risk that beverage will rapidly vacate the beverage carton either up the straw or around the straw at the insertion point upon insertion, thereby causing the beverage to be spilled. The consumer is at risk of spilling the beverage on themselves or someone or something at hand. This risk is further increased by the fact that a high percentage of these beverages are consumed by children, individuals that may lack some degree of hand coordination or who may consider the spraying of liquid desirable. This, of course, is not desirable or a game to the parent.
Another disadvantage of the current system of attaching the drinking straw and protective plastic envelope to the outside of the beverage carton is that the protective plastic envelope will often merely be discarded as litter. Commonly, removal of the existing drinking straw currently provided with the beverage carton of the previously mentioned type also requires removal of the straw""s protective plastic envelope from the outside of the beverage carton to which it is attached when received by the consumer. This leaves the consumer in the possession of the now empty plastic envelope and due to the small size of the plastic envelope and its low weight the consumer is often tempted to discard the plastic envelope as litter. As the empty envelope is manufactured of plastic, the envelope will exist in the environment for some time before breaking down and due to its small size and low weight is not likely to be picked up as garbage.
A still further disadvantage of the current system of attaching the drinking straw and protective plastic envelope to the outside of the beverage carton is that the straw will obscure the writing and art work on one side of the carton. In addition, as the plastic envelope containing the drinking straw is attached to the outside of the beverage carton there exists considerable risk that the plastic envelope and drinking straw will be inadvertently removed from the outside of the beverage carton and lost, placing the consumer in a compromised position when the time comes for the consumption of the beverage from the container.
Some arrangements have been proposed wherein a straw is provided in an individual beverage carton. For example U.S. Pat. No. 5,188,283 issued to Gu on Feb. 23, 1993, shows a straw in four different types of containers. In the parallelepipedic shaped container there is provided a hole in the container through which the straw is positioned. A groove is provided on the inside of the top tuck flap that is in registration with a top portion of the straw when the tuck flap is sealed to the container. Another example of providing a straw in a parallelepipedic shaped container is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,482,202 issued to Wen on Jan. 9, 1996. This container has a straw that is attached in the seams of the container and in at least one embodiment the straw extends from a top side edge to the opposed bottom side edge. An alternate approach is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,116,105 issued to Hong on May 26, 1992. This container has a short straw or pipette attached to the underside of the top tuck flap which is the extension of the top seam. The short straw is less than half the width of the container and is used more as a pouring spout than a drinking straw. The short straw is on the outside of the container and has to be inserted through the side wall of the container.
Each of these examples of a straw provided in an individual beverage container suffers from disadvantages. The Gu container would be difficult to manufacture. Firstly, the groove would be difficult to form in the top tuck flap. Secondly the top tuck flap with the groove therein would be difficult to seal once the container is filled with liquid. Thirdly the straw, hole and groove arrangement would not be adaptable to the continuous form, fill and seal process that is preferred for the manufacture of parallelepipedic shaped containers. The Wen container similarly would not be adaptable to the continuous form, fill and seal process since a good seal in a seam having a straw therein would be difficult to achieve. Further, a straw in the seam might lead to leakage through the straw. The Hong container provides a pour spout but does not eliminate the necessity of the consumer having to push the short straw or pipette into the container with all of the disadvantages associated therewith and it also has the disadvantage described above that the straw can be easily lost.
As the preferred method of manufacture of existing parallelepipedic plastic coated paper board material beverage cartons, involves a continuous form, fill and seal process, there are limited opportunities for the application of a drinking straw on the inside of the carton, so that the drinking straw may be inside the beverage carton at the time of purchase of the beverage by the consumer.
In general, the form, fill and seal process is composed of the steps of unrolling a preprinted and precreased plastic laminated paper board sheet; forming the sheet into a columnar sleeve; sealing a longitudinal seal along the columnar sleeve; adding the beverage into the sealed columnar sleeve; forming a transverse seal across the columnar sleeve and through the beverage; cutting the package from the columnar sleeve and forming a parallelepipedic carton with folded and fixed tabs.
With beverage cartons having a straw attached thereto, drinking straws that have been previously encased in their protective plastic envelopes are attached to one side of the completed beverage carton.
Accordingly it would be advantageous to provide a drinking straw on the inside of an individual beverage carton. Further it would be advantageous to provide a method of manufacturing an individual beverage carton that includes steps to provide a straw on the inside of the beverage carton.
In light of the previously mentioned limitations of existing beverage cartons of the parallelepipedic plastic coated paper board type, it is an object of the present invention to provide a beverage carton of the parallelepipedic plastic coated paper board type with a drinking straw on the inside of the beverage carton at the time of purchase and therefore also at the time of consumption of the beverage by the consumer.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a drinking straw with the beverage carton that is accessible by the consumer from the outside of the beverage carton.
A number of advantages would be realized by the provision of a straw on the inside of an individual beverage carton, namely the necessity by the consumer of having to insert the drinking straw through the packaging material is eliminated, thereby reducing the risk of accidental spillage of beverage and contamination of the drinking straw; the necessity of a protective envelope for the drinking straw is eliminated, since the drinking straw is present inside the beverage carton at the time of purchase and consumption of the beverage by the consumer; and the risk of having the drinking straw detached from the outside of the container is also eliminated. A further advantage that may be realized by the provision of a straw on the inside of an individual beverage carton is that since the drinking straw does not have to be used to pierce the packaging material, a straw of a thinner more flexible wall design may be used. Alternatively, a straw with a larger diameter and a thinner wall may be used, without increasing the amount of material used in the straw as compared to currently used straws. It is anticipated that a larger diameter straw would allow for easier consumption of the beverage.
The present invention is disclosed as being a drinking straw, a holder and a removable strip which together are attached to a paper board or plastic sheet material in such a manner that when the sheet is formed into a beverage carton the drinking straw and holder exist inside the beverage carton while the removable strip occurs on the outside of the beverage carton.
Further, the removable strip, holder and drinking straw are arranged so that the removable strip is accessible and removable by the consumer of the beverage and that upon removal of the strip, the upper portion of the drinking straw is exposed while the remainder of the straw is held in place in the beverage carton. The exposed portion of the drinking straw is then available for consumption of the beverage in the usual manner.
The drinking straw, holder and strip are manufactured as a preassembled unit, requiring only attachment of the preassembled unit to the sheet material at the time of formation, filling and sealing of the individual beverage cartons at the packaging facility.
The drinking straw has an overall length just slightly greater than the height of the formed beverage carton and is of a resiliently deformable material of hollow cylindrical shape and may or may not possess a region of corrugations to ease the resilient deformability requirement of the straw material.
The holder has a trough region to accept a portion of the drinking straw, a hole and sleeve region to support the remaining portion of the drinking straw and a flange to allow attachment of the holder to the sheet material of the beverage carton.
The removable strip is made of plastic, foil or the like and is sized to completely cover the trough region of the holder without infringing much of the flange area of the holder while possessing mechanical strength sufficient to resist accidental penetration by foreign objects into the beverage carton.
Further, the removable strip has an extended tab to facilitate removal of the strip by the consumer, that is, by pulling on the tab, the strip would be progressively stripped from the holder. It is recognized that the removable strip could include advertising or promotional material on its upper and/or lower surfaces.
Necessarily, the sheet plastic or paper board material would be cut with an oblong hole at the predetermined place that the drinking straw is to exit the beverage carton, such that attachment of the preassembled unit would occur around the perimeter of the so cut oblong hole on the xe2x80x9cinsidexe2x80x9d side of the sheet material.
In one aspect of the present invention a liquid container of plastic coated boxboard, laminated cardboard or the like having a straw therein is disclosed. The container includes a container body, a holder, a straw and a seal. The container has an interior volume and a plurality of exterior walls. The holder is mounted with a liquid and gas tight seal in an exterior wall. The holder has an aperture formed therein. A straw extends through the aperture in the holder with a snug fit. The straw has a stowed position and an in use position. The seal is for sealing the straw in the stowed position with a liquid and gas tight seal thereby sealing the liquid inside the container.
In another aspect of the present invention a holder for use in a liquid container is disclosed. The holder includes a trough, a flange and a sleeve. The trough has an aperture formed therein dimensioned to receive a straw snugly therein. The flange extends laterally from the trough and is attachable to the carton. The sleeve extends orthogonally from the trough with the distal end thereof encircling the aperture.
In a still further aspect of the present invention a method of manufacturing the container with a straw therein in a continuous form, fill and sealing process is disclosed. The process includes the following steps: unrolling a rolled sheet material being comprised of a plurality of carton sections, each carton section having a hole formed therein; sealingly attaching the holder/straw assembly to the sheet material over said hole; attaching a strip to the holder/straw assembly; forming the sheet into a columnar sleeve; sealing a longitudinal seal along the columnar sleeve; adding the beverage into the sealed columnar sleeve; forming a top and bottom transverse seal across the columnar sleeve and through the beverage; cutting individual cartons from the columnar sleeve; and forming a parallelepipedic carton having a drinking straw therin.
Further features of the invention will be described or will become apparent in the course of the following detailed description.